Are We Ready for School? (1/6/13)

Hey oh y’all,

There’s something to be said for being able to travel and laugh with people you know.

I mean then even shopping becomes a fun outing. Laughing alone in a store because you find a product confusing or amusing gets you weird looks from the staff. Laughing together still gets you weird looks but you are considerably less self-conscious about it.

Today we finally figured out how to get to the train station. Then we went to an out of the way town called Arashiyama and found a monkey park (and a long hike to get to said monkey park). Sumi-chan seemed to like feeding the monkeys. Then on our way back, we found a conveniently located sentou just next to the train station (this time I found the denki ofuro before mistakenly sitting in it). Then we stopped off and enjoyed a nice cool Japanese beverage (I like pocari sweat and Japanese apple juice).

Feeding the monkeys!

And there’s also something to be said for being able to just meet and laugh with people you really don’t know. One of the best things about meeting and living with a host family with kids is game time. Even if you can’t read the rules or instructions to the game (though our game of choice is wii sports, can’t really get much simpler), just setting up is nonstop laughter. Seriously, my host brother is hilarious. He spent so long trying to get my mii (game avatar) to look just like me (he even made me stand up to get try to get the height and weight correct), but since I kept making funny faces, he just started laughing and chose all the features randomly. Lol. The little “what are we doing with ourselves moments” are the best.

That said, even if you know how to play, you are guaranteed to be embarrassed by said host sibling. I was embarrassed by an elementary school kid at wii sports. I didn’t even know one could be good at wii sports, but my host brother is good at wii sports.

I have now changed my goals for these next few months: nihongo ga jyouzu ni naritakunai; bideo ge-mu ga jyouzu ni naritai (I don’t want to become good at Japanese; I want to become good at video games). That is all.

See y’all tomorrow at classes.

-DC